How to

So I have an old Apple Personal LaserWriter 300 from about 14 years ago. It is in surprisingly good condition, works like a champ, and I have about 5 extra toner cartridges for it. Awesome.

So I went to Google to see what I needed to do to make it accessible as a network printer. Here's the snag: it only supports QuickDraw. Which meant that it would only work on an OS 9 computer, and could only be shared to OS 9 computers. Damn.

So I thought about it for a bit, and came up with a way to make it work. (It's kinda clunky, but my method works.)

1. Get an old OS 9 machine and set up your LaserWriter normally. (In my case, I used an old PowerMac 7600.)

2. Give it a static IP address and turn on Apple File Sharing over TCP/IP.

3. Create two folders on the desktop. One called "Print Drop Box" and one called "Completed". Open sharing and give the drop box guest access.

4. Download and install James Davis' AutoType / AutoClick plugins for AppleScript. 

5. Make the following AppleScript and name it "Print". (Note that the AutoClick command I have listed here assumes that you are running with a resolution of 1024x768 on the server computer. If your resolution is different, you may have to play around with the click coordinates.)

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
	repeat with this_item in added_items
		tell application "Finder"
			set name of this_item to (time of (current date) as string) 
& "-" & name of this_item
			open this_item
			AutoType "p" holding "command"
			AutoClick {730, 50}
			AutoType "w" holding "command"
			move this_item to folder "Completed"
			beep
		end tell
	end repeat
end adding folder items to

6. Add the "Print" script as a Folder Action on the "Print Drop Box" folder.

7. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 for OS 9 and install it. (Don't worry about using a copy from 1999. It's worked flawlessly with everything I've thrown at it. Plus, it's only 4.9MB and loads in two seconds. Which is better than I can say for Adobe's current version of Reader.)

8. Mount the drop box on your OS X machine via "Go > Connect to Server" by typing in "afp://192.168.0.11" (or whatever IP you gave it) and selecting "Guest"

9. When you go to print on your OS X machine, select "Save to PDF" and throw it into the "Print Drop Box". The file will print and be moved to the "Completed" folder when it's done!

And there you have it. You now have a server that will accept PDF files and send them off to your QuickDraw-only printer. Great way to make use of an old, previously unsharable printer. I've put the machine in my closet, made it headless and installed OS9VNC for remote administration. Works beautifully.